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| Aeroporto di Parigi |
Back home
Leaving is a constant for many, but
for a missionary it is even more. After a few weeks in Italy, I am returning to
Bozoum. Time has flown. Between trips, meetings, interviews, conference evenings
(but also dinners and coffee or cappuccino), I have been able to meet many
people, communities, parishes, associations, schools, universities, TV and
newspapers. And I always discovered with joy great interest and a lot of
sympathy for Central Africa, for the Mission, for Bozoum.
Receiving such amount of energy by
many people is a commitment and an important gift! Gift because there is a lot
of esteem and affection. Commitment because I don’t go back to Bozoum alone,
but instead I’ll bring with me many people who support, work and pray for
Bozoum.
Tuesday morning, May 29th,
the alarm clock rings at 2.30 am: a half hour later I'm in the car with Paul,
who accompanies me. We move on to take Marisa, my sister, and at 3.10 we leave
from Cuneo, while raining, towards Turin. At 4.30 we are at the airport, and
after embarking the luggage, it is time (never easy) of the “good byes”. At
6.05 am the flight take off for Paris, where, at 10.10 am, I continue towards
Bangui. The flight, rarely happens, has no delay. Together with Mario Mazzali (precious
handyman of our Missions) I land on Bangui just before 4.00 pm (local time, 5.00
pm in Italy). We recover easily our luggage (another miracle) and we go to the
convent of Carmel, where we meet the Community.
I celebrate Mass around 7.00 pm. The
Gospel of the day is another gift: "Truly
I say to you, there is no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or
mother or father or children or fields because of me and because of Gospel,
which does not receive now, in this time, a hundred times as much in houses and
brothers and sisters and mothers and sons and fields, together with
persecutions, and eternal life in the time to come "(Mark 10, 29-31).
Wednesday morning I leave early at
4.30 am because I had forgotten to correct the hands of my watch. Anyhow we
find closed the barriers at 12th km (the exit of Bangui), perhaps
because of the tensions of recent weeks. At about 5.30 am the barriers are
opened and we leave, arriving around noon in Bozoum, welcomed by the people, by
Fathers Norberto and Matteo, and by the nuns Annita and Anne Marie.
May 31st is the feast of
the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. We close the month of May with a mass on
the Talo hill, from where a statue of the Madonna watches over Bozoum
protecting the city.
Welcome to Bozoum.
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| La veranda di Bozoum |
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